Deputy Tim “Chappy” Chapman: A community bands together for a brother in blue

For 28 years, Deputy Tim Chapman served the citizens of middle Georgia as a member of Houston County Sheriff’s Office. He began there as one who was assigned to the detention facility before rising to the rank of Patrol Sergeant in the Patrol Division. Most recently, he was transferred to the School Resource Division, but was forced to medically retire when it was discovered that he had cancer.

Hearing his plight, the Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 98 took action. Sergeant Dennis Marshall served as spokesperson for the effort and took time to share more details on the man and the mission with Houston Home Journal.

“Tim has esophageal cancer, and it’s in stage four,” Marshall informed. “It has now touched his lung and his liver, but they’re still pretty optimistic about his treatment. Right now, he’s undergoing chemotherapy, and they are trying to determine whether they’re going to do radiation or not.”

According to information provided by the Mayo Clinic, esophageal cancer occurs in the esophagus, which is the long hallow tube that runs from the throat to the stomach. It helps to move swallowed food from the back of the throat to the stomach to be digested. The cancer typically begins in the cells that line the inside of the esophagus, and this form of cancer is diagnosed in more men than women. One of the symptoms of the disease is difficulty in swallowing, and based on information shared by Marshall, it was a sign that Chapman began experiencing.

“It was one of those generic things where you think it’s something small, and you go and get it checked out, hoping all you’ve got is a little reflux,” Marshall said. “Well, I think one thing led to another, and then within just a couple of months of him doing tests, they discovered that he was already in stage four.”

It seems that Chapman is a servant at heart. Before he began serving the citizens of this county, he first served the citizens of this country. He was in the United States Air Force before becoming a law enforcement officer, and he served his country honorably. For a man who has done so much for so many, when the need arose, the Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 98 felt that it was time to band together and return the favor. Because of who they are and what they stand for, it was a natural instinct—virtually, a no-brainer.

“One thing that we, at the sheriff’s office, are really good at,” Marshall started. “We might not be good at making a lot of money of our own, but one thing we’re very good at is raising money for one another when issues like this arise. So, that’s what we did. We pulled together and decided to have a raffle.”

Because the raffle was set up with “law enforcement helping law enforcement” in mind, Marshall said they selected prices that they knew officers would be drawn to.

“Because most cops love guns, that’s something that we knew would encourage more ticket sales. That, and knowing that the proceeds were going toward helping a brother would be a big attraction. We knew that this raffle would draw other people aside from police; it would be supported by our community friends as well.”

In his 28 years of service, Marshall shared that Chapman had garnered many friendships in and around the community at large. His time spend in the county had allowed his friendship tentacles to be far-reaching. Not only was he active with the sheriff’s office, but Chapman was also an avid bowler, and the bowling league that he was a part of rallied around the cause as well.

“He’s really touched a lot of people’s lives, and that—in addition to the great prizes—made selling the tickets pretty easy,” Marshall reasoned.

The first-place prize is a Rick Island VR60 12-guage shotgun. The second-place prize winner will receive a Yeti 15 Cooler and the third-place prize is a custom bowling ball.

“We were pretty lucky,” Marshall acknowledged. The second and third place prizes were donated. We didn’t have to pay anything for those. Ace Bonding, which is owned by Derrick Childs, donated the Yeti and the bowling ball was given to us by the owner of Gold Cup Bowling. That’s where Tim does a lot of his bowling, and he’s got a lot of friends over there. And even with the shotgun, although we didn’t get it free, Centerville Gun and Pawn gave us a great discount, so we only had a small price to pay.”

In total, the only overhead that the group had to pay was the small fee for the shotgun and the price to get the tickets printed, which opened the door to help Chapman in a big way.

“I just had to purchase more tickets because we had no idea how successful this was going to be,” Marshall revealed. “A lot of people love Tim and want to support him. I just ordered 10,000 more tickets. We’re selling them now, and we’ll keep selling them until they run out.”

The cost of the raffle tickets is $1.00 each, and date of the drawing has been set for August 30. Marshall explained that the reason the date had been set that far in the future is because of the upcoming Peace Officers Association of Georgia gathering.

“It’s a big conference, and law officers absolutely love to help fellow police officials,” he stressed. “If we haven’t sold all the tickets by the time the conference gets here, I know that I can sell the rest of them there.”

The proceeds from the ticket sells will go toward any expenses incurred from Chapman’s medical emergency, to include medical expense and travel and lodging expenses for family members who are coming to central Georgia to help him when they can. Marshall said that Chapman is aware of what the community is doing for him, and he’s very grateful.

“I went and put $2,100 in his hands on Tuesday,” he reported. “There are needs and expense going on right now, so instead of waiting and holding all the money until the end, we are giving what we collect along the way in this process. Those things that need to be paid for now, can be paid for now as money is raised. Not only will we bring the money to him, but we are ready and willing to take the money we raise and go and pay the bill for him, so he doesn’t have to worry about it. We’re just trying to make sure he’s taken care of,” Marshall stated. “He’s a brother in blue.”

Anyone who is interested in purchasing tickets and helping with the cause are asked to contact Sergeant Dennis Marshall at the Houston Sheriff’s Office by calling 478-733-4568.

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